Sunday, March 14, 2010

Week 11 - Feeding my Cousin

It was a maniacally busy week but the thing that most sticks out was the time I spent with Helen.

I didn’t see her Monday but took Tuesday off because Charlie had to fly to Dallas for work and Helen didn’t want to be alone. We had left it that she would get up before Charlie left and would call me when she wanted me to come over. Well she called at 6:20 a.m. saying, “I’m bored. Come entertain me.” I was there by 7:00 and stayed until after my normal bedtime, leaving at lunch time to make grilled cheese and tomato soup. Helen also sent me home at 2:30 so she could nap and I returned at 5:00 with mac & cheese. These 2 meals were the first full sized ones Helen had eaten in a week. We had a lot of fun chatting, watching TV and just hanging out.

I made supper for Helen and Charlie on Wednesday night – a super yummy cajun chicken pasta with black beans – but didn’t stay long after we ate so I could have some time at home. I’d already warned them that I would be going to water aerobics on Thursday so they’d be on their own for supper. After the pool, I enjoyed leftover pasta while watching Survivor, which is particularly good this season. I do love that show! But I digress…. Friday night I got the grill up and running now that it’s not covered by a snow drift and made steaks, rice and corn for supper. Helen seemed much better just in the 2 days since I’d seen her last.

I ran errands on Saturday morning and then started preparing for Helen’s first field trip (if you don’t count PT) – supper at my house. I was making lasagna so started that right after lunch. That done, I began peeling apples for the apple pie for book club, saving a few out to make apple crisp. Those done, I started clearing space so Helen could use her walker more easily and figuring out how to keep her comfortable at the dining room table and also on the couch. They arrived just after 6:00 and stayed for a couple of hours. It was fun and Helen did just fine. Charlie was the one who wanted to leave because he was exhausted and yawning up a storm.

Sunday was the long anticipated arrival of Liberty of London merchandise at Target and Andrea and I had planned to go weeks ago. I checked online in the morning and everything was already sold out so I called Andrea and we rushed to Omaha to check it out. Target is so odd! They’ve been hyping this stuff for weeks but we got there and some of the stuff wasn’t even on the shelf yet. It was also scattered all through the store so you just had to search aisle by aisle to find it all. I got a picture frame and a pop up leaf bag that I intend to use for yarn but was disappointed that they didn’t have any dishes. So we headed to a 2nd Target and struck pay dirt there. I got a cereal bowl and a mug and Andrea found 2 dresses and a top in the girls’ department, which she not only fit in but the XL was too big so she went down to a large. Sheesh! While she was trying the dresses on, someone was on the walkie talkie asking about Liberty teapots, which there had been space for on the shelf but there weren’t any. Well, the clerk in the fitting room said they were going to put some out so I ran over there and got the last one. Yay! Now I have breakfast for me and the teapot matches the mug.